


Tormented

by jdjunkie



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e10 The Torment of Tantalus, M/M, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-17
Updated: 2012-07-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 04:07:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdjunkie/pseuds/jdjunkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A beautiful  moment leads to a terrifying realization.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tormented

It was an unbearably poignant moment; Ernest and Catherine holding each other among the everyday bustle of the control room. Such a tender, meaningful embrace.

Jack watched them and wondered what that hug felt like for them. For Ernest, whose mind had conjured Catherine to keep him sane in those lost years. For Catherine, who had grown old while the image of her beloved Ernest had remained forever young. Yet, here they were, warm and alive and together, holding each other safe.

Beside him, Daniel watched them fondly. Perhaps a little wistfully. He, too, had lost his love. What was going through his mind as he regarded this unexpected, beautiful embodiment of lost love found?

Did Daniel’s arms feel as empty as Jack’s did in those agonizing moments when Jack allowed himself to remember the softness of Sara’s body, the teasing brush of her hair, the smell of her favorite perfume?

Jack’s arms suddenly ached with longing. It was fierce and real. It terrified him.

He felt blindsided. Overwhelmed. Shocked. This ... _this_ was why he hardly ever let himself think of what he’d lost.

It hurt too fucking much.

He had to get out of there.

“I have to get out of here,” Daniel said quietly. Jack, momentarily thrown to hear his unspoken thoughts given voice, turned and found haunted eyes fixed on him, willing him to understand.

And, in the depths of Daniel’s anguish, Jack saw his own pain and loss reflected there.

It was startling. It was real. It terrified him.

“Okay,” Jack said, haltingly, when he really wanted to say a hundred things about understanding and how he’d get Sha’uri back for him because he couldn’t bear the thought of Daniel being alone in the way Ernest had been alone, in the way Jack was alone, because Daniel _was_ alone, even among his friends who loved him.

_Jack_ loved him.

It was a quiet, certain, epiphany.

And that terrified him more than anything.

“Okay,” Jack whispered as he watched Daniel, hands in pockets, head bowed, walk away.

 

ends


End file.
